Actual Fallout From Nintendo’s Pokémon Announcement

As I awoke from my glorious slumber, having dreamed of meeting friends in an online Pokémon world, my phone had gone bananas overnight. I had e-mails, Facebook notifications, Twitter connections, text messages, everything.

Yep, there’s a new Pokémon game coming out. A new generation for a new handheld. But it’s not going to be that massive persistent online game I really, really wanted. I’m okay with that. It also appears to not be a massive “super game” that connects every region together. I think I’m okay with that, too.

One of my biggest fears of the series has been, believe it or not, the graphics. While some lamented at the style of the GBA games, I absolutely adored them. But then again, I absolutely adore pixels and secretly wish for Square Enix to make a new final fantasy game in the visual style of Final Fantasy VI. As the series has progressed, I’ve become worried. Would Pokémon start to look like its home console releases, with a visual style that I absolutely despise with every bone in my body? Would the charm of the colorful 2D visuals be lost?

The initial screens and trailer for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y say a big fat “hell no,” incorporating a more stylized version of the art style we’ve been accustomed to on the DS, but with better battle animations and some higher resolution cutscenes.

Phew. Crisis averted. I mean, it also helps that in addition to the new Pokémon we’ll encounter, such as something that looks like a physic type with the appearance of Hitmonlee in a juggler’s suit, we see some old favorites like Dratini and Sneasel. Plus, there’s hope that Game Freak continues to expand the storytelling abilities that made Pokémon Black and White 2 so enjoyable.

There’s also the fact that Nintendo’s online services keep improving, so the same could happen for Pokémon’s. And there’s always that sense of joy and discovery when you’re adventuring a new world. It was nice to make a couple of nostalgic trips on the DS, but there’s something about a new generation that gets everyone excited. Once you look deep enough, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about Pokémon X and Pokémon Y.

This may not be the Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald remake that everyone seemed to want for no apparent reason other than nostalgia, but remember that we can still play those on our DS Lites and transfer to our DS games, which we can then transfer to…

Shit. We’re going to have to buy something to transfer Pokémon from our DS cartridges to our 3DS cartridge.